{"id":118398,"date":"2026-08-24T13:15:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T18:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=118398"},"modified":"2026-08-24T13:15:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T18:15:02","slug":"118398","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=118398","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Pentagon dubs M18 handgun \u2018safe and reliable\u2019 after review<\/a><\/p>\n

The Pentagon is defending the safety of M17 and M18 handguns \u2014 military versions of the controversial SIG Sauer P320 \u2014 saying that \u201cthere has never been a mechanically caused accidental discharge\u201d involving the service weapon.<\/p>\n

The Aug. 7\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0followed a review of the Modular Handgun System, a program led by the Army\u2019s Project Manager Soldier Lethality, initiated after an\u00a0airman was shot and killed<\/a> because of an alleged \u201cuncommanded discharge\u201d with an M18 handgun.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s incident resulted in an immediate inspection of all M18 handguns issued by the Air Force Global Strike Command as well as a\u00a0temporary pause<\/a>\u00a0of their use, which was\u00a0lifted a month later<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Additionally, three airmen involved in the deadly shooting were\u00a0charged with lying to investigators<\/a>. They claimed the gun just \u201cwent off\u201d when the shooter slammed his duty belt against a desk, when in reality, he had pointed it at the victim in a \u201cjoking manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the statement, the Army has investigated all reports of incidents involving MHS pistols discharging without a trigger pull, and firearms mishaps account for less than 0.006% of all MHS pistols issued.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll investigated incidents of alleged \u2018uncommanded discharges\u2019 have been traced back to the trigger being pulled,\u201d Army officials say, adding that they blame \u201cpublic speculation and online misinformation\u201d for the safety concerns regarding the handgun design.<\/p>\n

However, the civilian version of the handgun has been linked to dozens of injuries and a handful of deaths, with victims claiming the gun discharged a round without a trigger pull. In turn, the design has been the subject of more than\u00a0100 legal challenges<\/a>\u00a0since it was introduced in 2014, with varying outcomes.<\/p>\n

In many of the lawsuits, attorneys\u00a0argue<\/a>\u00a0that the design\u2019s passive safeties can fail to adequately prevent unintentional manipulation of the trigger. It\u2019s important to note that unlike the civilian P320, the M18 and M17 pistol designs are\u00a0equipped with a manual safety<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since the\u00a0SIG design won DoD approval<\/a>\u00a0in 2017, M17 and M18 pistols have become the standard-issue sidearm for the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy. There are more than 400,000 currently in service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pentagon dubs M18 handgun \u2018safe and reliable\u2019 after review The Pentagon is defending the safety of M17 and M18 handguns \u2014 military versions of the controversial SIG Sauer P320 \u2014 saying that \u201cthere has never been a mechanically caused accidental discharge\u201d involving the service weapon. The Aug. 7\u00a0statement\u00a0followed a review of the Modular Handgun System, … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gun-schtuff","category-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118399,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118398\/revisions\/118399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}